Why Professionals Prefer Continuous Cybersecurity Training

Continuous learning has many benefits and with the “ever-evolving” technology, learning is the only tool to keep yourself updated and ahead of the competition. In this article, let us see how powerful the approach of continuous training is, especially when it is applied to a cybersecurity team training.

Cybersecurity Professionals are Students of the Business

“Change” is the only constant term in cybersecurity industry, and therefore, it is not enough for cyber professionals to avail technical degrees or certifications and continue to lead in their positions. They must constantly thrive for new methodologies to stay ahead and ensure efficacy in their present job role. Only when they execute their current role and keep themselves in pace with the new trends, cyber professionals can expect greater success in their career. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) or those holding managerial positions face the unrelenting challenge of identifying opportunities to assess, train, and retain their cyber teams, and to achieve this challenge, they must adopt continuous cybersecurity learning.

When it comes to cybersecurity team of professionals, their main skill should be the ability to develop knowledge continuously to perform efficiently in the workplace. They must be willing to stay up to date with the current industrial developments and expand their knowledge base, practice those skills, and apply them in their jobs.

Continuous Cybersecurity Education Is Essential

Many leaders and those in authority are addressing this problem of cybersecurity skill shortage by adopting a continuous training strategy in their organizations along with individual’s self-improvement learning. The challenge in cybersecurity is mainly the impact of hackers’ TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) and this calls for continuous education. The ESG research also stated that the 96% of the cybersecurity professionals agreed on the importance of continuous learning, failing which organizations will be working at a significant disadvantage [4].

Indeed, it is clear that cybersecurity professionals should stay updated with the skills via continuous education and training. However, preconceived perceptions of time and cost are preventing many organizations to provide regular development of cybersecurity skills to their employees.

Two-thirds (67%) of professionals admit that though they are making their best attempt to learn and update, they are mostly occupied with the demands of their jobs

Only 38% of cybersecurity pros admit that they are offered right training by their employers

To summarize, most cybersecurity professionals are overburdened with their current job roles due to the shortage of required skilled staff. On the other hand, employers are failing to support employees with the adequate amount of training due to the misconception of time and value factors. This is a disturbing situation that demands immediate attention.

CISOs being the authoritative decision makers, mark the upper position in the hierarchy of cybersecurity, should adopt the following:

Interview and assess the skill level of cyber team individually and identify skill deficits.

Able to address large amount of workload by investing on automation and staff augmentation so that the existing staff can be moved to the tasks that require higher level of reasoning and analysis.

Provide ample opportunities to the cyber staff through various modes of education like onsite training, mentoring, networking, and so on.

Analyze, measure, and compensate the cybersecurity staff on skills development.

Develop teams incrementally by being in the mind-set that the work will continuously progress with further demand for cybersecurity pros.

Continuous learning will strengthen your cyber teams and prepare them to defend organizations from sophisticated cyber threats. As technology strengthens over time, crucial steps must be taken with emphasis on continuous learning to avoid your organization from being named a victim of a cybersecurity attack in the headlines.

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